Patagonia plans global campaign for responsible capitalism

The outdoor clothing and equipment company says we need to develop very different measures of success if we are to prevent environmental collapse

Patagonia's connection to the wilderness has a big impact on the company's approach to environmental issues, says Vincent Stanley, vice-president of marketing at Patagonia. Photograph: Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images

In the true spirit of adventure, mountaineering and surfing company Patagonia reaches one summit and immediately searches for an even tougher peak to climb.

Fresh from taking a pot shot at our consumerist society with its challenging "don't buy this jacket" advertising campaign, Patagonia now has the whole capitalist system in its crosshairs.

Starting this autumn, the outdoor clothing and equipment company is launching a two-year campaign which will challenge the very foundations of our current system.

Vincent Stanley, who has worked for the company since its inception and is the nephew of founder Yvon Chouinard, says the aim of the responsible economy campaign will be to find new measures of success that do not depend on selling an ever increasing number of goods and services.

Stanley, who recently co-authored a book with Chouinard on the lessons learnt since the company was founded 40 years ago, says: "We are really trying to get a lot of people together to discuss what a more responsible economy would look like, one that is not based upon consumption.

"How do you start to really value and honour what satisfies people as a whole and get away from the idea of shopping as an entertainment or as a kind of compensation for lack of time."

Progressive does not mean sustainable

The word sustainability has been avoided altogether because Stanley says that not even the most progressive of companies has yet found a way of producing goods and services that do not ultimately cause environmental damage.

He illustrates the point by pointing to the item of clothing that was used in the company's "don't buy this jacket" adverts, which appeared in the United States on Black Friday, the first day of the Christmas spending frenzy.

While it is durable and 60% recycled, it still costs more than it sells for, given that its manufacture uses enough drinking water for 45 people, generates 20 times its weight in carbon dioxide emissions and two-thirds its weight in scrap.

Stanley likens consumerism to an addiction and that the first step in rehabilitation is to acknowledge there is a problem that needs addressing.

"Our head of environmental initiatives says prosperity tied to growth is the elephant in the room that nobody is really prepared to talk about," he says. "Certainly businesses would be reluctant to talk about it.

"So I think it's time to talk about the elephant. I have been meeting with college students as well as customers at Patagonia stores and the response to this is very strong, I think people are looking for a deeper conversation than we have been having about what business should be doing or can be doing."

Looking beyond growth

Stanley recognises that the desire to grow is built into the very fabric of nature but as intelligent humans, we have to find a new definition of what success looks like, as well as doing the practical work of decoupling economic activity from resource use.

That's not so easy in a society which bases its value on the consistent expansion in gross domestic product.

"I remember adding up our first month's takings and we had done $50,000 and everybody was cheering," he says. "There is a team spirit that goes with that, there is an impulse towards success and I think all of that is not particularly bad. But we need to redefine what prosperity means or what growth means. Even David Cameron has accepted the idea of a happiness index.

"There are two areas we need to explore. One is the quality of life and what relation that has to prosperity, which tends to be not very high after a certain point, once people's needs are met.

"The second is the question of valuing nature's services and that's something that is being worked on by a number of companies, but we need to recognise that if we actually do value what nature does that could have enormous implications for the economy because it can make everything a lot more expensive.

"I'm in two minds because you don't want to have a lot of people suffer but on the other hand it's probably a good thing to have things reflect their true cost to prevent the destruction of nature, so it's a matter of justice first."

Patagonia is also keen to build on its Common Threads Initiative, which saw it partnering with eBay to create a market for its second-hand clothes. It is looking at creating a registration for each product so customers can highlight all the places in the world where its clothing and equipment has been used, thereby creating a whole "romantic" story around each article.

A wake up call

Stanley recognises that some argue that Patagonia is able to take its responsibilities so seriously only because it is privately owned, but he says that Chouinard has always wanted it to be an example of what is possible and it has therefore been paramount that it operates with all the constraints that any other business faces.

While one would imagine that the catalyst for the company's journey towards being a responsible business was inspired by the wilderness, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

In fact, the whole issue of sustainability came to the fore only in 1988 when staff at its new Boston store became sick with headaches and stomach pains. An environmental engineer was called in and the problem traced to formaldehyde seeping from the cotton sportswear stored in the basement. That immediately set alarm bells ringing and led to the company embarking on a journey to understand every part of its supply chain.

"We were slow," admits Stanley. "It took us 20 years to look at the impacts of what we were doing as a company or taking a peep behind the curtain in the supply chain to see what we as a company were actually having done in our name."

A personal connection

Stanley also makes it clear that the experience of being in the wilderness does have a big impact on the approach the company takes and to the connection its employees and customers have to environmental issues.

"People who spend time in the wilderness become much more open to the idea that something exists that is larger than us and that challenges us and that we have a debt to," he says.

"It sharpens who we are as human beings and it awakens in us the part that is not necessarily socialised. Also that sense of being in danger removes us from the sense of security and from the idea of being at the top of the food chain and being in control.

"In fact that sense of comfort that has surrounded business for 100 years is kind of evolving right now and I think it will allow people to be more imaginative and responsive. I think comfort tends to dull the mind."

Stanley also believes that the dominant narrative of business means that a sense of spirituality and morality have been squeezed out of work conversations. He believes it is now time to integrate these back into the mainstream debate.

"I think a moral or spiritual element is very important in how people respond to these issues, even CEOs of big companies respond to that call," he says. "I think we should be more open about this without necessarily falling into a kind of doctrinal discussion about what the sources of that spirituality are.

"The whole idea of spirituality is something that provides a kind of ballast for regular life, which is concentrated on making a living and getting things done. The moral component of how people should treat one another and how we should treat the living systems of the planet really does have to play a part of this, a big part. Because I don't think the instrumental arguments are going to be persuasive on their own."